that government to two wicked men: one of
no fortune at all, and the other of a very suspicious fortune; one a
total bankrupt, the other justly excommunicated for his wickedness in
his country, and then in prison for misdemeanors in a subordinate
situation of government. Mr. Hastings destroyed the Council that
imprisoned him; and, instead of putting one of the best and most
reputable of the natives to govern it, he takes out of prison this
excommunicated wretch, hated by God and man,--this bankrupt, this man of
evil and desperate character, this mismanager of the public revenue in
an inferior station; and, as he had given Bengal to Gunga Govind Sing,
he gave this province to Rajahs Kelleram and Cullian Sing. It was done
upon this principle, that they would increase and very much better the
revenue. These men seemed to be as strange instruments for improving a
revenue as ever were chosen, I suppose, since the world began. Perhaps
their merit was giving a bribe of 40,000_l._ to Mr. Hastings. How he
disposed of it I don't know. He says, "I disposed of it to the public,
and it was in a case of emergency." You will see in the course of this
business the falsehood of that pretence; for you will see, though the
obligation is given for it as a round sum of money, that the payment
was not accomplished till a year after; that therefore it could not
answer any immediate exigence of the Company. Did it answer in an
increase of the revenue? The very reverse. Those persons who had given
this bribe of 40,000_l._ at the end of that year were found 80,000_l._
in debt to the Company. The Company always loses, when Mr. Hastings
takes a bribe; and when he proposes an increase of the revenue, the
Company loses often double. But I hope and trust your Lordships will
consider this idea of a monstrous rise of rent, given by men of
desperate fortunes and characters, to be one of the grievances instead
of one of the advantages of this system.

It has been necessary to lay these facts before you, (and I have stated
them to your Lordships far short of their reality, partly through my
infirmity, and partly on account of the odiousness of the task of going
through things that disgrace human nature,) that you may be enabled
fully to enter into the dreadful consequences which attend a system of
bribery and corruption in a Governor-General. On a transient view,
bribery is rather a subject of disgust than horror,--the sordid practice
of a venal, mean, a